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Title: Self-assembled nanostructures in ionic liquids facilitate charge storage at electrified interfaces

Abstract

Driven by the potential applications of ionic liquids (ILs) in many emerging electrochemical technologies, recent research efforts have been directed at understanding the complex ion ordering in these systems, to uncover novel energy storage mechanisms at IL–electrode interfaces. Here, we discover that surface-active ILs (SAILs), which contain amphiphilic structures inducing self-assembly, exhibit enhanced charge storage performance at electrified surfaces. We report that unlike conventional non-amphiphilic ILs, for which ion distribution is dominated by Coulombic interactions, SAILs exhibit significant and competing van der Waals interactions owing to the non-polar surfactant tails, leading to unusual interfacial ion distributions. We reveal that, at an intermediate degree of electrode polarization, SAILs display optimum performance, because the low-charge-density alkyl tails are effectively excluded from the electrode surfaces, whereas the formation of non-polar domains along the surface suppresses undesired overscreening effects. This work represents a crucial step towards understanding the unique interfacial behaviour and electrochemical properties of amphiphilic liquid systems showing long-range ordering, and offers insights into the design principles for high-energy-density electrolytes based on spontaneous self-assembly behaviour.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [2];  [6];  [5];  [7];  [8];  [9]; ORCiD logo [9]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  3. Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Lyon (France); Univ. of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (Czech Republic)
  4. Univ. of Chester (United Kingdom)
  5. Univ. of Western Australia, Perth, WA (Australia)
  6. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  7. Univ. of Bristol (United Kingdom)
  8. Inst. Laue–Langevin, Grenoble (France)
  9. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Lyon (France)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
Czech Science Foundation; Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) (United Kingdom); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1594997
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515; 19-04150Y
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 18; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 1476-1122
Publisher:
Springer Nature - Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
25 ENERGY STORAGE; Electrochemistry; Energy transfer; Molecular dynamics; Molecular self-assembly

Citation Formats

Mao, Xianwen, Brown, Paul, Červinka, Ctirad, Hazell, Gavin, Li, Hua, Ren, Yinying, Chen, Di, Atkin, Rob, Eastoe, Julian, Grillo, Isabelle, Padua, Agilio. A. H., Costa Gomes, Margarida. F., and Hatton, T. Alan. Self-assembled nanostructures in ionic liquids facilitate charge storage at electrified interfaces. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1038/s41563-019-0449-6.
Mao, Xianwen, Brown, Paul, Červinka, Ctirad, Hazell, Gavin, Li, Hua, Ren, Yinying, Chen, Di, Atkin, Rob, Eastoe, Julian, Grillo, Isabelle, Padua, Agilio. A. H., Costa Gomes, Margarida. F., & Hatton, T. Alan. Self-assembled nanostructures in ionic liquids facilitate charge storage at electrified interfaces. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0449-6
Mao, Xianwen, Brown, Paul, Červinka, Ctirad, Hazell, Gavin, Li, Hua, Ren, Yinying, Chen, Di, Atkin, Rob, Eastoe, Julian, Grillo, Isabelle, Padua, Agilio. A. H., Costa Gomes, Margarida. F., and Hatton, T. Alan. Mon . "Self-assembled nanostructures in ionic liquids facilitate charge storage at electrified interfaces". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0449-6. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1594997.
@article{osti_1594997,
title = {Self-assembled nanostructures in ionic liquids facilitate charge storage at electrified interfaces},
author = {Mao, Xianwen and Brown, Paul and Červinka, Ctirad and Hazell, Gavin and Li, Hua and Ren, Yinying and Chen, Di and Atkin, Rob and Eastoe, Julian and Grillo, Isabelle and Padua, Agilio. A. H. and Costa Gomes, Margarida. F. and Hatton, T. Alan},
abstractNote = {Driven by the potential applications of ionic liquids (ILs) in many emerging electrochemical technologies, recent research efforts have been directed at understanding the complex ion ordering in these systems, to uncover novel energy storage mechanisms at IL–electrode interfaces. Here, we discover that surface-active ILs (SAILs), which contain amphiphilic structures inducing self-assembly, exhibit enhanced charge storage performance at electrified surfaces. We report that unlike conventional non-amphiphilic ILs, for which ion distribution is dominated by Coulombic interactions, SAILs exhibit significant and competing van der Waals interactions owing to the non-polar surfactant tails, leading to unusual interfacial ion distributions. We reveal that, at an intermediate degree of electrode polarization, SAILs display optimum performance, because the low-charge-density alkyl tails are effectively excluded from the electrode surfaces, whereas the formation of non-polar domains along the surface suppresses undesired overscreening effects. This work represents a crucial step towards understanding the unique interfacial behaviour and electrochemical properties of amphiphilic liquid systems showing long-range ordering, and offers insights into the design principles for high-energy-density electrolytes based on spontaneous self-assembly behaviour.},
doi = {10.1038/s41563-019-0449-6},
journal = {Nature Materials},
number = 12,
volume = 18,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Aug 12 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Mon Aug 12 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

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Cited by: 118 works
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Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1 Fig. 1: Bulk-phase structural and electrochemical characterization of [C4C1lm][AOT]. a, Molecular structures of [C4C1lm]+. [BF4]- and [AOT]- (H. white; C, grey; N, blue; S, yellow; 0, red; B, pink; F, cyan). Typical distances within the molecular ions are indicated. b, SANS profiles of [C4C1lm][BF 4] (25 °C) and [C4C1lm][AOT] (25,more » 50 and 70°C). Inset: illustration of self-assembly of [C4C1lm][AOT] leading to a repeating nanostructure comprising [AOT]- bilayers (red, cation; blue, anion). Simulated SANS profiles (Supplementary Fig. 11) are consistent with the experimental data. c,d, Cyclic voltammogram profiles (scan rate= 20 mV s-1) (c) and the specific capacitance versus the scan rate (d) for [C4C1lm][BF 4] and [C4C1lm][AOT] at 25, 70, 130 and 200 °C.« less

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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.